Engineer Testifies On Demand For Payoff In Chicago Heights

February 10, 1993|By Matt O'Connor.

A consulting engineer to the City of Chicago Heights testified Tuesday that Nick LoBue, then a councilman, demanded a huge kickback from contractors shortly after work began on a $14 million pipeline project in the summer of 1983.

Dante DeSantis, testifying at the federal bribery trial of former Chicago Heights Mayor Charles Panici, said he believes LoBue sought $100,000 in bribes and claimed he was speaking for himself and unidentified others.

DeSantis, then a director of Robinson Engineering Ltd., said LoBue threatened to slow down payments to the contractors unless they came up with kickbacks.

Later Tuesday, one of the contractors, Charles Mayer, testified that he and two other contractors came up with an initial payoff of $9,000 and, after being pressed for more, produced a later $45,000 cash payoff.

The payoffs came after Mayer, president of Hulett Corp.; John Marich of J.T. Marich Co.; and Nick DiPaulo of DiPaulo Construction Co. formed a joint venture named HMD and won the Chicago Heights pipeline contract with the low bid.

Testimony also suggested LoBue may have received another $45,000 from the contractors by submitting a bogus bill for work on the pipeline project from a non-existent company.

Panici, Chicago Heights mayor from 1975 to 1991, is on trial with former council members John Gliottoni Jr. and Louise Marshall on charges of taking in excess of $600,000 in bribes from numerous city contractors.

Defense lawyers contend LoBue, the government's star witness who testified last week, lied about passing most of the bribes to Panici and instead pocketed the money.

DeSantis, testifying under a grant of immunity from prosecution, said after LoBue hit him up for more payoffs from the pipeline contractors, he brought the matter up with Panici in a private meeting in the mayor's City Hall office.

DeSantis also testified that Marshall, at a meeting she set up near her home, raised questions about Panici's and LoBue's "higher style of life" and demanded to know: "What's going on? You know what I mean."

When he mentioned the meeting to LoBue, DeSantis said LoBue told him Marshall was dissatisfied with her cut from the pipeline kickbacks and "thought she should get more money."

After publicity about LoBue's cooperation with federal authorities in 1991, DeSantis said Panici cautioned him outside a restaurant "to be careful of what I said (to federal agents) because of Nick LoBue's ties."

LoBue admitted in testimony that he was close friends with top south suburban mob figures.

DeSantis also said he often let Panici, his wife or girlfriend use a condominium in Ft. Lauderdale, free of charge.

DeSantis said he and four business partners owned the condo and let Panici and other politicians use the condo as "a way of saying thanks" for their business.

DeSantis, 71, who said that as the city's consulting engineer he attended virtually every City Council meeting during Panici's 16 years as mayor, said he couldn't recall Panici ever being on the losing side of a vote.

Mayer said he lied about making payoffs on the pipeline project when he was first interviewed by FBI agents in the late 1980s.

Mayer said he had been afraid since 1983, when he received a telephone call from a muffled voice warning him, "Your best interests would be served cooperating on the water job."

"I was afraid for the safety of myself and my family and the well-being of my business," Mayer said. "I wasn't about to be the first one to blow the whistle on this."